Secret Santa
by singabella
Summary: Bella has drawn Edward's name for a Secret Santa present at work.


****A/N: Here is my little Christmas gift for the Secret Santa at work. Hope everyone enjoys.

**Secret Santa**

I walked into the chemistry lab Monday morning after having a very satisfying Thanksgiving with my parents. Although both of them got divorced when I was little, Renee and Charlie made an effort to come visit me in Seattle at the same time for the holiday weekend. It was nice and relaxing for my time away from work.

"Hey Bella, how was Thanksgiving with the fam?" Alice Brandon asked as soon as I walked into the lab.

"It was actually really great," I replied smiling. "Of course, the meal would have been a disaster if I had let Renee or Charlie in the kitchen."

"I had this great idea that I wanted to tell everyone in the lab about, but I was waiting for you to show up," Alice said happily.

"Am I late?" I asked worriedly.

I looked around and didn't see anyone out of the place. I turned around to look at the clock on the wall and saw that I was actually ten minutes late.

Alice rolled her eyes, "No one even noticed."

"Nice of you to show up today, Bella!" Quil Ateara called out from the back of the lab.

I shot both of them one of my meanest looks, but I don't think it fazed them at all.

"Okay everyone, gather around!" Alice yelled out to get everyone's attention.

I remained standing next to Alice while everyone came in to hear what she had to say. I glanced at all of the people around thinking of how great it is to come in and work with people you like. Of course, there were always a few that I try to avoid as much as possible like Lauren Mallory.

"Okay guys, who wants to do Secret Santa for the lab?" Alice asked.

"Yes!" Emmett McCarty yelled giving a little fist pump with Jasper Whitlock. I nodded my head along with several others like Angela Webber and Ben Cheney.

"Okay, the price for the gift has to be fifteen dollars or less. Write your names on a piece of paper and put it in this Santa candy dish," Alice spoke as she placed a bowl-shaped candy dish on the table next to where she was standing.

I started to walk away toward the lab bench where I do my work, but Alice spoke up, "Wait Bella, I already wrote your name down on a piece of paper."

"Thanks Alice," I responded as I watched her drop a piece of paper with each of our names on it into the dish.

When everyone had placed their names in the dish, Alice picked it up and shook the pieces of paper up as much as she could without letting any of them fall onto the floor.

"Okay, come pick a name out of the bowl and make sure you don't pick yourself," Alice told us.

People took turns grabbing a name out of the bowl. It was funny because some people like Emmett were really excited as soon as they looked at the person they got while others were feeling a bit disgruntled over their pick.

I hesitantly put my hand in and grabbed one of the three little pieces of paper that were left inside the bowl. I didn't have very high expectations on who I would get stuck with but I was hoping that it would be someone that is easy to buy something for. I opened up the piece of paper to see whose name was written on it. My breath caught as I easily recognized the elegant script that could only belong to one male in the lab, Edward Cullen.

You could probably say that I've had a crush on Edward since shortly after I began working here. He was the one that took me around the lab and introduced me to everybody on my first day at work. Edward also made a point to sit with me during breaks or lunches initially to help me feel more welcome. He really helped make this new job a good experience.

I couldn't help but to look up from the piece of paper containing Edward's name to see where he was standing. I took the time to take in his lean body that was surprisingly muscular. His shirt sleeves were already rolled up on his forearms in preparation of the work he would be doing today. He was looking down at the piece of paper in his hand with a frown on his enticing face. It made me curious to know who he had to buy a gift for, but I wouldn't ask him that question.

It's been several months since I first started working here and after the initial couple of weeks, Edward stopped hanging around me as much. Nowadays, I just get a passing "Hey, how are you?" out of him and none of the great conversations that we used to have together. I don't really understand it because it's not like he started hanging out with other people instead of me. I would understand that because then I would just know that he felt it was his duty to make me feel comfortable at work and once I got adjusted, it was time for him to go back to his usual friends.

I sighed and pushed those thoughts out of my mind. It's not like it would matter one way or another but I decided that I'm going to put a little effort into finding the perfect gift for Edward instead of doing an impersonal gift that takes no time at all to find. I looked up when I noticed Jacob Black walking over to me.

"Hey Jake," I said smiling.

"Bella, whose name did you get?" Jake asked.

"Now now," Alice chided obviously overhearing the conversation. "No divulging the details of who you picked with someone else. It's called Secret Santa for a reason people."

"You show me yours and I'll show you mine," Jake whispered giving me a wink.

I playfully shoved him away laughing. "I'm not playing your games," I told him.

The friendly banter between everyone continued as we slowly dispersed to begin our work for the day. The rest of the morning passed by quickly since all of us were pretty busy with our individual projects. I had reached a good stopping point for lunch and headed into the break room where everyone gathered for breaks and lunches.

The break room contained enough tables and chairs to seat approximately fifty people at a time. Since lab work is never done at exactly the same time for everybody, not everyone from the lab takes a lunch together. I walked into the room and quickly scanned around to see who was in here eating lunch. This was my typical practice because I would rather sit by myself than actually sit at a table with a few of my colleagues.

I saw Alice and Jasper sitting at a table with Angela so I took my lunch over to their table. I had just taken out my sandwich along with a bag of chips when I heard Lauren Mallory's voice get louder. I'm pretty sure everyone in the break room was looking over to her table when she started talking about the Secret Santa presents.

"All I'm saying is that nobody better get me a gift card," Lauren griped.

"Come on!" Quil exclaimed. "What's wrong with getting a gift card?"

"They are just a lazy way of getting a gift for someone," Lauren told him. "I expect whoever gets my name to go out and find a present that I would like."

"Don't you think that's asking a bit much out of some of us?" Quil asked skeptically.

"If you can't get a decent gift, then you shouldn't be participating," Lauren said crossing her arms emphatically.

"Can you believe her?" Alice asked grimacing.

I turned away from the latest attraction in the break room and shrugged. "You know how she can be."

"So have you decided what you're going to get for your person?" Alice asked me.

"No idea," I said shaking my head. "I really want to pick out something thoughtful though."

Jasper leaned forward in the chair, "A thoughtful gift for a girl or a guy?" he asked giving me a little smirk.

I refused to play into Jasper's game; although, the blush that was currently rising up my cheeks was probably a dead giveaway to everyone at the table.

"Come on, Jazz," Angela admonished, "leave Bella alone."

Of course Jasper wouldn't let such a thing go so quickly. "So who is he?" he asked.

"Jasper, you know the rules," Alice told him while placing her hand on top of his. "Bella isn't supposed to divulge who she picked out of the bowl."

I grinned triumphantly at Jasper, but he just gave me a look that promised he might come back around to find out when Alice wasn't around to save me.

I sat back to eat my sandwich as Angela and Alice chatted with one another about Christmas decorations. I looked up as I saw the door from the lab open and in came Edward. I watched from my seat as he walked over to a table where Jessica was sitting and leaned down to talk to her. Jealousy flared up in me as I watched how close his face was to hers as he talked. I put my half-eaten sandwich down on the table and took a quick drink of water before getting up.

"Bella, where are you going?" Angela asked with concern gracing her face.

Alice and Jasper were both staring quizzically at me. "I'm not really hungry, so I'm going to go back to work," I told them as I grabbed my trash and headed toward the trash can to throw it away before going back inside the lab.

I vaguely noticed Edward look over at me as I headed back into the lab, but I didn't want to think about him or the way he was paying such close attention to Jessica.

The rest of the week passed by in a blue. I was struggling to come up with a good present for Edward. Every time I had an idea, I quickly decided against it because it was too cheesy or something that Edward already owned. It was really hard to come up with something for the man who already had everything.

By the weekend I decided that I needed to take action. I called up Alice for some advice.

"Hey Bella," Alice answered after the second ring.

"Alice, I really need some help," I told her. "I have no idea what to get for my Secret Santa gift."

"Okay, is this person someone you're close to or just a co-worker?" Alice asked.

I bit my lip nervously before replying, "He's someone that I would like to know better outside of work, but I'm pretty sure he just thinks of me as another girl at work."

"Hmm.," Alice mused. "Jasper's right here, so let me ask him what he thinks might be a good idea."

I could hear them talking softly to one another over the phone, but I couldn't pick out what they were actually saying to each other.

"So Jasper thinks that a journal would be the perfect Secret Santa gift," Alice finally responded.

"Like a diary?" I asked skeptically.

"A journal is not the same as a diary, Bella," Alice told me.

"Then what's the difference?" I shot back.

Suddenly, I heard Jasper's calming voice over the phone. "Bella, I promise that a journal is actually a really good gift for a guy. There are guys out there who actually like to jot down little notes and carry a journal around to write down ideas as they think of it instead of forgetting whatever it was ten minutes later when they finally find a scrap piece of paper," Jasper explained.

I shrugged even though neither Alice nor Jasper would be able to see the movement through the phone. "Okay, I'm still skeptical of this Jasper, but I'm going to trust you because I haven't been able to come up with anything better on my own."

We said our goodbyes over the phone and I quickly hung up. I glanced at the time and saw that there was still a few hours before my favorite bookstore closed for the day. I've seen some really nice leather journals there on previous visits, so I grabbed my jacket and purse before heading out the door to go to the bookstore to buy my gift.

After ten minutes of light traffic, I pulled into a decent parking spot in front of Enlightenment, which was a small locally owned bookstore in the area. I hurried inside as fast as I could go without tripping to get out of the cold, blustery air and into a nice warm building.

One of the things that I really enjoyed about this bookstore was that the owners tried to make you feel at home. The had a small coat rack near the door, where I hung up my coat alongside a few others. The interior was decorated in warm, earthy colors instead of plain white walls that tend to make things seem more sterile and uninviting. The selection was not very large, but they always carried the classics, which is where I tended to head most of the time I came into the store.

This time I was on a mission and veered off to the opposite side of the store from the classics where I remembered seeing some journals during a past visit. I came within ten steps of the shelf that neatly housed several types of journals when I came to a standstill.

Edward Cullen was standing in front of the journals holding one of them in his hand as he examined it closely. Instead of going over to join in, I was the coward who ducked behind the nearest bookshelf. I watched from where I was standing as he flipped through the journal. I almost thought that he was going to buy it when Edward put it back on the shelf and walked away.

He didn't see me as he passed by. I quickly looked to see that he was walking toward the classics area, which is where you would normally find me stationed at while I perused through their selection. I took advantage of this moment and walked the few steps to the same journal that he had been looking at so closely.

It was a black leather bound journal that was not quite the same size as a hardback book. The pages inside the journal consisted of a thick quality of paper that would prevent any kind of ink or marker from bleeding through to the next page. I thought it was really nice and looked to see that the price listed for this particular journal was a little less than ten dollars.

I decided to take Jasper's advice and get the journal since it was within my price range for the gift and Edward had been looking at the same one. I took it over to the elderly man who was working today.

As I placed it on the counter in front of the man, I took a quick look around but didn't see Edward anywhere. I mused that he had probably already left the store at some point while I was looking for his gift.

"Would you like this engraved?" the elderly man asked.

I turned back to see him giving me a friendly smile. "You can engrave journals?" I asked.

The man nodded. "Several people like to put their names or initials on them because they're so personal."

"How much does it cost?" I asked thinking that it sounded like a good idea.

"It's two dollars if you want just the initials or five dollars if you want a whole name," the man answered.

"I'll do the whole name," I responded not caring if I went a little over the budget.

I paid the man the money and carefully wrote Edward's name on a piece of paper so that there wouldn't be any trouble reading what I wrote. The piece of paper was taken away along with the journal I just purchased so that the man could engrave the name on it.

While I was waiting for the man to come back, I finally saw Edward come from somewhere near the back of the store. He had a hard-bound book in his hand and wasn't focused on anything around him. When he got up to the counter where I was standing, he finally looked up.

"Bella!" he said taking a small step back in surprise at finding me standing here.

"Hey Edward, how are you?" I asked smiling.

"I'm good," Edward responded gifting me with his signature smile. "How's your day been so far?"

"Not too bad," I replied. "Do you come here often?"

"This is actually only the second time I've been in here," Edward answered. "I usually only come here when I need to look for something in particular because this is the place to find that special book that no one will have."

"I like their classics section," I told him. "They have such a good variety to choose from. I've even seen some signed copies of a few of the more recent books and the occasional first edition."

I was enjoying our conversation and hated that it ended as soon as the man came back with the journal already placed in a small gift bag with some tissue paper. I always appreciated the little touches that small stores like this will do for their customers. I might have even considered giving Edward the gift wrapped the way it was if it wasn't for the fact that he was standing right next to me.

"Well, I guess I'll see you on Monday," I told him nervously shifting from one foot to another.

"Yeah, I'll see you Monday," Edward said.

I gave him one final glance as I made my way out of the store to find that Edward was still staring straight at me. His look was unreadable, but it made my stomach tighten up with nervousness.

The rest of the weekend went by in a blur. I wrapped the Christmas present and did a lot of cleaning around the house. I tried not to think about Edward. Of course, that made it impossible to read most of my favorite Jane Austen novels. I even seemed to have the worst luck when I turned on the television to find something to watch. Every show or movie that I ran across that looked half-way decent seemed to have a character named Edward.

If I thought that the week would be any different, I was proven to be entirely wrong on Monday. I passed by Edward on several occasions during the day and never got more than two words out of him at any given time. It was frustrating to me because I just couldn't figure the guy out. He wasn't hanging out with any of the other girls in the lab anymore like he did the week before, but he also wasn't really speaking to me either. Edward almost seemed nervous, but I knew that was probably just my imagination. At least we would be exchanging gifts on Friday, so I wouldn't have to wait long to find out if he at least liked what I picked out for him.

With my busy days at work, it didn't seem to take long before Friday was upon me. I tried to take my time getting ready. I made sure to pick out some clothes that were a little less rumpled and I let my hair curl in little waves. I grabbed the gift and headed out the door on my way to work.

Since Alice likes to overdo everything around her, the lab actually had an artificial Christmas tree set up in one of the corners near the door. The tree was fully decorated with various shaped ornaments in reds, greens, and golds with gold ribbons streaming down from the top of the tree. I'm pretty sure Alice even put extra lights on the tree because those little bulbs seemed to be everywhere.

I placed my gift-wrapped present under the Christmas tree as soon as I stepped through the door. I took a moment to glance at all of other gifts surrounding the tree. The gifts were various shapes and sizes as one might expect. There were some that were neatly wrapped in various holiday patterns with ribbons and bows like my present with small cards attached that contained the name of the person the gift was for. Others were haphazardly taped together with small edges of the gift that didn't quite have all the paper covering it. I even saw a couple of presents under the tree that held a post-it note with the gift receiver's name written on it with a sharpie marker.

After everyone had arrive at work, I saw Alice head up to the front of the lab.

"Okay everyone, we're going to start the Secret Santa giveaway," Alice called out to us.

There were several people who quickly approached the tree and were trying to find the gift addressed to them when Alice called us all to a halt.

"So instead of everyone grabbing their gift at the same time, we're going to go one by one," Alice said.

"Aww, come on Alice!" Mike whined. "Why do we have to do it that way?"

"Because it's more fun," Alice told him. "Besides, this way everyone gets to see what each person was given instead of having a whole room full of people ripping open their presents at the same time."

I still heard some grumbling amongst my fellow employees, but we all knew that you can't really fight Alice on anything. When she wants something done a certain way, you might as well go ahead and do it because she is one stubborn person.

"Okay, Emmett you go first," Alice said.

Emmett pulled out a small card from under the tree with his name on it. It was ripped open in two seconds and he pulled out a gift card.

"A gift card to Dick's Sporting Goods," Emmett cheered. "That's awesome Embry."

Embry pulled out his gift next. He pulled the post-it note off and unwrapped the present.

"Thanks for the calendar, Mike," Embry said without a whole lot of enthusiasm.

Mike pulled a small bag out from under the tree that had his name on it. I was already confused because it looked a lot like a Victoria's Secret bag from where I was standing. Mike pulled out the tissue paper and I watched as his face blanched. He slowly held up a lacy black bra and everyone burst out laughing.

"I'm going to kill you Emmett," Mike muttered.

Jacob went next and grabbed an envelope from underneath the tree. He opened it up and smiled broadly. "Thanks for the Car and Driver magazine subscription, Eric," Jake said.

Eric was next to open up his gift. It turned out to be a picture frame from Lauren complete with a smiling picture of her inside it.

Lauren was next to grab a very small card. She already had a frown on her face that I'm pretty sure was due to the size of the present. When she got the card open, Lauren actually let out a shriek of outrage.

"How dare you get me a ten dollar gift card to Home Depot, Quil!" Lauren yelled out furiously.

I couldn't help but to laugh because I could tell from Quil's expression that he went out of his way to make sure she got something that she would despise.

Quil opened his gift next to find some earbuds from Ben.

"Thanks man," Quil told Ben. "Mine just gave out a couple of weeks ago and I haven't had time to replace them yet."

Ben was excited when he opened his present to see that Jasper bought him a new book from a science fiction series that he had been reading a lot lately. Jasper received some music from Jake that he had been contemplating buying recently. Seth bought Alice a variety pack of travel size bottles of scented lotion from a popular store in the mall. Angela bought Seth a couple of issues of a comic book series that Seth had been bringing in to work to read during break times. Angela was gifted with several scented candles from Rosalie that came in various shapes and sizes.

"It's to create a romantic atmosphere," Rosalie told Angela in a voice that was clearly heard by everyone in the room.

Rosalie was the next to open up her present that was given from Tyler. It was a fairly small box that was poorly wrapped. I could tell from the way that Rose was trying to open up the package that there was a very large amount of tape used and she was having a hard time getting into it. When she finally got the box open, she gasped.

Rose then turned eyes that were as round as saucers to Tyler as she held up a thong.

"Woohoo!" Emmett cheered. "Will you wear that tonight?" he asked making suggestive faces as Rose.

Rosalie just glared at him before shoving the offensive underwear back in the box.

Tyler was next to open up his present. He was still cringing from the verbal lashing that Rosalie had given him a few minutes ago for her gift. His present was in a metal tin that had a bow taped on top of it. Tyler didn't bother taking the bow off the top before he pried the cover of the tin loose. Inside the tin was a bunch of sugar cookies that you could buy from the grocery store.

Jessica opened the small present from Alice next. Jessica was happy to see the keepsake ornament that was in the box.

Edward walked up to the tree next. We were the last two to open up presents and I quickly came to the realization that I didn't remember anyone before me getting a gift from Edward. That meant that the other present under the tree was most likely Edward's gift to me.

I swallowed nervously as Edward picked up the present that I had taken time to gift-wrap as well as I could. He was completely focused as he slowly unwrapped the present taking care to not tear the wrapping paper.

When Edward first saw the journal in his hands, he was completely silent. I was holding my breath wondering if he liked what I picked out for him.

His eyes lifted up to find me standing in the crowd and he finally spoke, "Bella, thank you. I love it."

All the breath left me in a rush of giddiness that I had picked something that Edward truly liked. I couldn't help the blinding smile that lit up my face.

Edward looked as if he was going to turn toward the tree to grab the final present but stopped what he was doing all of a sudden.

He looked over at me before saying, "Bella, I owe you an apology."

Those words eliminated the smile on my face. Instead it was replaced with a look of confusion.

"These past several months I've been avoiding you and I'm sorry for that. When you first came to work here, I wanted to help you get adjusted and fit in with everyone so that you wouldn't feel unwelcome. You warmed my heart from the very beginning."

Edward ran a hand through his head of hair before continuing. "I just didn't know what people would think about a workplace romance. Even though we have a few couples here at work, there aren't any people that are to the point of even contemplating marriage."

I'm not sure it was just me who was looking at him in shock by this point. Was Edward actually saying that he envisioned us being married someday?

"I thought that by distancing myself from you my feelings would go away. Unfortunately, my feelings for you have just gotten stronger until I can no longer stay away from you."

Edward slowly turned back toward the tree and reached to grab that final present that was left under it. He handed it to me and while staring directly into my eyes said, "This is for you. I hope you like it."

I opened the package in my hands slowly, but not nearly as carefully as Edward. It revealed a mix CD and a movie ticket for the latest romance that hit the theatres.

Before I could say anything about the gift, Edward spoke again. "The disk is of some music I wrote for you in my spare time that I recorded. I also happen to have another ticket to the movie and was wondering if you wanted to go out with me?"

Everyone else in the lab could have still been standing there watching all of this unfold, but my focus was solely on Edward standing before me.

"I would love to go out with you, Edward," I told him before ignoring all of the rules of the workplace and kissing him passionately on the lips for the first time.


End file.
